St. Landry democrat., 1887-06-18
HEAVEN OPENED.
A SERMON PREACHED BY THE REV
DEWITT TALMAGE.

The Stonfnx of Stephen and What Fol-
lowed--Five Pictures of the Ascent to
Heaven of the Martyred saint--The Rest
Prepared for the Children of God.
BROOKLYN, June 12.-This morning at
the Tabernacle the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D., expounded appropriate
passages of Scripture, after which the
congregation sang the favorite hymn:
"There is rest for the weary" The rev.
erend doctors text was Acts vii, $3.50:
"Behold I see the Heavens opened, and
the Son of Man standing On the right
hand of God. Then they cried out with
a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and
ran upon him with one accord, and cast
him out of the city, and stoned him; and
the witnesses laid down their clothes at
a young mans feet, whose name was
Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, and saying Lord Jesus, re-
ceive my spirit. And he kneeled down,
and cried with loud voice, Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge. And when
he had said this, he fell asleep" The
preacher said:
Stephen had been preaching rousing
sermon, and the people could not stand
it. They resolved to do as men sometimes
would like to do in this day, if they
dared, with some plain preacher of right
eousness-kill him. The only way to
silence this man was to knock the breath
out of him. So they rushed Stephen out
of the gates of the city, and with curse,
and whoop, and below they brought him
to the cliff, as was the custom when they
wanted to take away life by stoning.
Having brought him to the edge of the
cliff they pushed him off. After he had
fallen they came and looked down, and
seeing that he was not yet dead,
they began to drop stones upon
him, stone after stone, stone after
stone. Amid this horrible rain of mis-
siles Stephen chambers upon his knees
and folds his hands, while the blood
drips from his temples to his cheeks.
from his cheeks to his garments, from
his garments to the ground; and then,
looking up, he makes two prayers-one
for himself and one for his murderers.
Lord Jesus receive my spirit" that was
for himself. Lord, lay not this sin to
their CHARGE" that was for his assail-
ants. Then, from pain and loss of blood,
he swooned away and fell asleep.
Iwant to show you to-day five pic
lures: Stephen gazing into Heaven.
Stephen looking at Christ. Stephen
stoned. Stephen in his dying prayer.
Stephen asleep.
First, look at Stephen gazing into
Heaven. Before you take leap you
want to know where you are going to
land. Before you climb ladder you
want to know to what point the ladder
reaches. And it was right that Stephen
within few moments of Heaven, should
be gazing into it. I'VE would all do well
to be found in the same posture. There
is enough in Heaven to keep us gazing.
A man of large wealth may have statuary
in the hall, and paintings in the sitting
room, and works of art in all parts of the
house, but he has the chief pictures in the
art gallery, and there hour after hour
you walk with catalogue and glass
and ever increasing admiration. well,
Heaven is the gallery where God
has gathered the chief treasures OF His
realm. The whole universe is His palace.
In this lower room where we stop there
are many adornments: tessellated floor
of amethyst and blossom, and on the
winding cloud-stairs are stretched out
canvas on which commingle azure, and
purple,e and saffron, and gold. But
Heaven is the gallery in which the chief
glories are gathered. There are the
brightest robes. There are the richest
crowns. There are the highest exhilara-
lions. John says of it: 1.-THE kings of
the earth shall bring their honor and
glory into it." And see the procession
forming, and in the line come all en-
pires, and the stars spring up into an
arch for the hosts to march under. They
keep step to the sound of earthquake and
the pitch of avalanche from the noun
tains, and the flag they bear is the
flame of consuming world, and all
Heaven turns out with harps and trum
pets and myriad-voiced reclamation Of
angelic dominion to welcome them in,
and so the kings of the earth bring their
honor and glory into it. Do you wonder
that good people often stand like
Stephen, looking into Heaven? We
have great many friends there. There
is not man in this house to-day so
isolated in life but there is some one in
Heaven with whom he once shook hands.
As man gets older, the number of his
celestial acquaintance very rapidly
multiplies. We have not had one glimpse
of them since the night we kissed them
good-by and they went away; but still
we stand gazing at Heaven. AS when
some of our friends go across the
sea, we stand on the dock or on
the steam-tug and watch them, and after
awhile the hulk of the vessel dis
appears, and then there is only
a patch of sail on the sky, and soon that
is gone, and they are all out of sight,
and yet we stand looking in the same d.
rection. So when our friends go away
from us into the future world we keep
looking down through the narrows, and
gazing and gazing as though we ex-
pected that they would come out and
stand on some evening cloud and give
US one glimpse of their blissful and trans
q H., 4